


Just a Breath of Nothingness

by Violettavonviolet



Series: Tony hurts (Jarvis helps) [3]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Dead Jarvis, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Tony, Jarvis is missed, Mantis touches somebody, Past Character Death, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony Feels, Tony Has Issues, Tony Stark Has Trust Issues, broken tony, nothingness, or rather he doesn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22512250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violettavonviolet/pseuds/Violettavonviolet
Summary: “What do you think happened to him?”“He lost something, someone. And now he has just stopped caring, he lost whatever it was and with it lost his hope and his humanity.The others all had a mix of emotions, mostly greed and sometimes anger or loss but he has simply nothing, he can’t bring himself to care anymore,And it has left him with just a breath of nothingness.”
Relationships: Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Mantis & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team, Tony Stark & Guardians of the Galaxy Team, Tony Stark & Stark Robots
Series: Tony hurts (Jarvis helps) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605337
Comments: 5
Kudos: 237
Collections: Tony Cinematic Universe One-Shots





	Just a Breath of Nothingness

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as a stand alone 
> 
> Hey y'all, I'm back again with another addiction to this series. This is however not a follow up to the ones before.   
> I'm sorry for the week of abstinence, I am currently interning and it is a lot harder than I thought it would be.   
> You can however expect another update tomorrow, or at least I'm trying to get one out until tomorrow, because I don't know how this week is going to be in terms of work and so I don't know when I'm going to be able to post again.   
> This is also a lot darker then I usually write and I'm not exactly sure how good it is, but I always wanted to write something with Mantis because her powers are so interesting to write about and I really love any fanfics involving her power.   
> Anyway, I wrote way too much again, so im going to stop now, and present you with the fic, hope you'll like it:

It had all started with a crash, a loud annoying crash right in Tonys backyard. He hadn’t actually heard the crash, but ~~Jarvis~~ , Vision informed him of it, and that was how it all started.   
It was a few weeks before the return of the Ex-avengers and he had been hiding down in his workshop trying to forget the fact that he had helped the witch,   
who had mind controlled him, and the Captain, a Hero who had rammed a metal shield into his chest and left him behind to die just because he had been upset about the death of his mother, get a pardon.   
But Thanos was coming, and so his own wellbeing could be ignored for the good of all.   
Reluctantly, Tony left his lair, lab to manage the situation, with possible hostile aliens, without a suit of armor as one does.   
Had he mentioned that he hadn’t slept in about four days, no?   
Well, he hadn’t, and his actions reflected that.   
Luckily, the aliens on the ship weren’t hostile, but rather allies that had come to earth to aide in the fight against Thanos.   
They called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, and they were a colorful bunch.   
There was a talking raccoon named “Rocket” and as if that wasn’t enough, they also had a living tree called “Groot”, who could only communicate with the words “I am Groot” but they always had a different meaning, additionally ~~the tree~~ , Groot, was apparently a teenager, so that was cool?   
They also had a really weird alien on board who was unable to understand metaphors or sarcasm, that introduced himself as “Drax the Destroyer”. 

Additionally there was a green alien lady, Gamora, and a blue alien lady, Nebula, who were sister, but they weren’t actually? It seemed to personal and to complicated to ask right away, so he simply accepted it as it was.   
Then there was another alien lady who had some kind of antennas on top of her head and sensed your emotions if you touched her.   
The last one to introduce himself was a human, or at least a humanoid looking alien.   
The man who had told Tony to call him Peter, was a part human who had been abducted by aliens as a child, and wasn’t that a surprise? 

Conspiracy theorists around the world would have a field day if that particular information ever got out.   
After the introduction, Tony invited them into the compound, not his smartest move, seeing as he didn’t actually had prove that they weren’t secretly trying to conquer the earth, but he was too tired to think about it much more and so he simply let them in.   
What could even happen, sure, the compound could be trashed and he might die, 

~~but wasn’t that his deepest wish, anyway?~~

The compound was far away from any major city, and it had no neighbors for miles on end, so there wasn’t really any risk in letting them in.   
Over the next couple of weeks, he got to know them a little bit better, and found that he actually liked them.   
They were always polite to him, they didn’t talk about him behind his back, something that he had always been painfully aware of when the other avengers lived with him, really,   
Jarvis had been everywhere, had they really expected him to not know about stuff like that?  
And the weirdest thing was that they always thanked him for everything, Everything.   
Why would they thank him for providing them with food,   
he had the money for it, why wouldn’t he?   
They thanked him for the parts he gave Rocket for their ship, when that wasn’t really a question for him.   
Somebody needed help?   
Of course, he would help, he had the ability to do so.   
And they had looked so disturbed when he had said, that they didn’t need to thank him for anything. But Tony enjoyed it, and after a while didn’t comment on it any further.   
A few days before Team Captain America would come back, he informed them of their arrival and was severely shocked when they started to ask questions, like why he would still fund them, house them and give them so much of his attention money and time when it was clear that they didn’t want him on the team and thought of him as trash?   
Tony had tried to explain to them why it didn’t matter what they had done to him, how it was for the good of the world, how he had enough red in his ledger and that this was one way to try and give a little bit back. They had been strangely taken back by his statements and didn’t seem to understand why it was his fault that things had happened in the way they did.   
After a while they had thankfully given up on convincing him that this wasn’t his fault, but they thanked him even more afterwards which was a little weird on their part, he had expected them to be disgusted from his actions and avoiding him but they didn’t and Tony was enjoying the attention too much to ask, why.   
And so, the Avengers reunited and everything was fine,   
Well, it seemed to be for everyone but him.   
They all seemed completely okay with him spending his ‘blood’ money on stuff for them and not the least bit reluctant in asking for weapons and gear and everything else they wished for.   
And so, he put on a mask and acted like nothing was wrong, like he had no panic attacks alone in his lab because the shield was here again, and the man who had wielded the shield against his chest was also there, in his kitchen enjoying his food on his plate, like he had no care in the world.   
He was sure they still thought he exaggerated when it came to Thanos, or that he had simply made up everything, despite the evidence proving his existence and the threat he posed to earth.   
Sure they were fine with his reasoning when it came to giving them pardons, but otherwise he was just an old man, rambling in paranoia.   
He hid away more in his lair, workshop, and avoided the others like nothing else.   
They had accepted the aliens now living with them easily enough, and they didn’t think too much about the meaning of their stay at the compound. 

And then, IT happened. It had been a normal evening in the compound, the Guardians and Avengers were enjoying drinks together and everything was calm. Tony had been sitting in a corner of the room, a glass of whiskey in his hand, but he hadn’t even sipped on it yet.   
The captain had persuaded him to join their little thing in the common area, and with convinced he meant practically threatened to bench him if he wouldn’t come up. 

Steve had of course ignored Tonys arguments, because why would’t Tony have time, it wasn’t like he was the head of R&D and the owner of one of the largest companies in the world or anything. Tony sighed internally, Pepper would kill him if he didn’t finish the Mark12x phone until tomorrow and had at least one upgrade for the current Starkpod.   
This was going to be another all nighter then. 

He really didn’t understand the Captain sometimes, why was he okay with ramming a shield into his chest but not with him being in his workshop to do his literal Job for gods sake? It wasn’t like his money grew on trees and with the reparations he had to pay because of the battle at the airport and their continuing payments for New York, he really should work a bit more. 

He observed the scene that played out in front of him for a bit, the Ex-Vengers had apparently just been informed about Mantis’ powers, they weren’t as taken aback as he thought they would be but they weren’t exactly polite about it either.   
But Mantis, ever so sweetly and nice explained her powers a few times to try to make them actually understand them. 

They didn’t-understand-but they seemed to have grasped the extent of Mantis’ powers and now tried to persuade her to touch them. Why any of them would actually want that, he didn’t know, he didn’t want it, ~~because he was afraid, afraid of the things she would find~~ , it seemed like a pretty personal thing and none of them had led particularly happy lives.   
Maybe it was a trust thing, he figured.   
That way they would know what they felt and could be sure of each others ‘Morals’, even though he was pretty sure none of them had any.   
He could see how reluctant Mantis was, she had probably already figured out that none of their feelings or personalities would be especially nice to feel, but he also knew that she would agree because she was so polite and rarely said no to anyone at all.  
And so it happened, she touched each of them with varying degrees of disgust or at least dislike on her face.   
When she touched Wanda she actually shuddered and for a minute Tony thought that she wouldn’t touch any of them after this but she went on, as if nothing had happened and the others either didn’t see her shuddering and disgust or they purposefully ignored it because they didn’t react.   
Finally she had touched each of them and Tony thought that, that was that, how naive he was. Of course this wasn’t it, as soon as she had finished, Clint looked over to Tonys corner and asked him to come over to them so that he may be touched as well. Tony cursed silently but came over anyway, he didn’t want to start another fight and hopefully he could disappear after this. 

He could see in Mantis face that she didn’t want to touch him and he understood, he wouldn’t want to touch himself either. But at the same time he strangely didn’t care, he rarely actually cared about anything these days, his hard had been broken for the last time when the arc reactor on his chest had shattered from the shield his father had made his childhood hero.   
That and the death of his son, A.I had made him just not care anymore. He still loved Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and his other sons, U, DUM-E and Butterfingers, and his new daughter Friday as fiercely as ever, but other than that? He couldn’t care less if he wanted to, he would do everything for them and he did, but his will to actually live was gone. He would defeat Thanos, and every other mad man out there to protect them, but he knew deep down that he himself had died with Jarvis.   
He wished he could spare Mantis the lethargy in his head but the others wouldn’t stop pressing the matter until he did it and it was better now then later.   
He signaled Mantis that he was ready and prepared himself for whatever would now happen. 

And then she touched him. 

He felt nothing, just her cold finger touching his arm, but she felt apparently something, at least her face indicated that. He couldn’t say that she was disgusted but she sure as hell didn’t look happy or anything. Suddenly she opened her eyes again and let his arm go, she looked at him weirdly but said nothing. He nodded again, and stood up, announcing that he would now go back down to his lab. He left the room without looking back, and he almost feared that Mantis would follow him, but she didn’t or not at first at least. 

Down in the lab, he turned on the cameras in the common area and looked at the feed.   
The others were asking what she had sensed when she had touched Tony, but she didn’t respond a first. Finally, Peter touched her lightly at her shoulder and she snapped out of whatever had just happened to her. She left the room without another word, but luckily not in direction of his lab. Peter followed shortly afterwards and so did Tony, at least with the cameras.   
He was mildly aware of the fact that his behavior was more than a little morally questionable and at least a mild breach of privacy, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.   
“What did you feel, Mantis?” Mantis stared out of a window, still pale, but finally answered after a few minutes.   
With a trembling voice, she whispered; “At first, I felt love, so much love and then there was loss so much loss and heartbreak, but then…” she stopped talking, a tear rolling down her cheek, her face only lit by the small bit of moonlight coming trough the trees.  
“… There was nothing Peter, nothing at all, it was just a void and it felt like it was trying to pull me inside, trying to drown me in nothingness. I have never felt something like that, even the dullest creatures feel something, anything! But there, there was nothing anymore.” She trembled even more, now silently crying. Peter helplessly put an arm around her, clearly unsure what to do.   
“What do you think happened to him?”   
“He lost something, someone. And now he has just stopped caring, he lost whatever it was and with it lost his hope and his humanity.   
The others all had a mix of emotions, mostly greed and sometimes anger or loss but he has simply nothing, he can’t bring himself to care anymore,  
And it has left him with just a breath of nothingness.”

Tony turned the feed off, feeling less than ever before. 

His feelings were buried with Jarvis’ burned code after   
~~And they would never emerge again.~~

**Author's Note:**

> And it is done! So, what are your thoughts on this?   
> Did you Like it? Did you not like it?   
> Leave a comment down below, those always make my day! I'm prolly going to post another one tomorrow so stay tuned for that!   
> Bye  
> Vio


End file.
